Maintaining an (ATP) energy supply in humans sufficient for survival and activity requires the metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids. Humans cannot survive without oxygen being supplied into the cells. During oxygen metabolism in the body, however, free radicals, also called hazardous or active oxygen, are generated as a byproduct. The active oxygen harms the body in various ways, for example, they form lipid peroxides in the tissues of human body. In other words, the increase in active oxygen increases lipid peroxides, and excessive lipid peroxides can cause various diseases such as stroke, cardiac infarction, myocardial infarction, alcoholic hepatitis, etc., due to cerebrovascular disorders.
Accordingly, it is very important to quantitatively check the amount of active oxygen as an index for health prevention, but the harmful active oxygen is highly reactive and thus it is difficult to directly measure their level. As such, the amount of lipid peroxides caused by active oxygen is indirectly detected and often used as a marker. In general, malondialdehyde (MDA) is a marker serving as one of the methods used to estimate the level of lipid peroxidation. It can be easily detected in blood tissues and used as a marker for health evaluation. By measuring MDA, the level of lipid peroxidation can be elucidated. The level of MDA is often detected using blood or urine. MDA detection can be done using an HLPC or thiobarbituric acid reactant substrate (TBARS) method, and more frequently via TBARS method because HPLC requires expensive equipment. However, the TBARS method also has the disadvantages that the method also requires boiling of a sample, and necessitates a sophisticated process of extraction using an organic solvent, thus requiring a relatively long time for the process and also requires additional technically trained laboratory staff to perform the process. Additionally, the method has an additional problem that it allows materials other than MDA to react, thus deteriorating its specificity.